An Occasionally Happy Family
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · February 7, 2023
A Middle Grade pick for readers exploring An Occasionally Happy Family.
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- Who it’s for
- A playful, sustained read with road-trip momentum and family messiness in the mix.
- Genres
- Stepfamily Stories, Loss & Grief, Funny Stories
- Published
- HarperCollins, February 7, 2023
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Gordon Korman meets The Great Outdoors in this funny and moving debut about a boy who goes on a disastrous family vacation (sweltering heat! bear chases!) that ends with a terrible surprise: his dad's new girlfriend. There are zero reasons for Theo Ripley to look forward to his family vacation. Not only are he, sister Laura, and nature-obsessed Dad going to Big Bend, the least popular National Park, but once there, the family will be camping. And Theo is an indoor animal.
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It doesn’t help that this will be the first vacation they’re taking since Mom passed away. Once there, the family contends with 110 degree days, wild bears, and an annoying amateur ornithologist and his awful teenage vlogger son. Then, Theo’s dad hits him with a whopper of a surprise: the whole trip is just a trick to introduce his secret new girlfriend. Theo tries to squash down the pain in his chest. But when it becomes clear that this is an auditioning-to-be-his-stepmom girlfriend, Theo must find a way to face his grief and talk to his dad before his family is forever changed.
Road-Trip Trouble
A playful, sustained read with road-trip momentum and family messiness in the mix.
Come here for
- playful family-road-trip energy
- middle-grade coming-of-age with divorce-era friction
Expect
- middle-grade pacing
- category-search friendly signals
Where it sits
| Loss & Grief | 83% |
|---|---|
| Funny Stories | 55% |
| Stepfamily Stories | 51% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Parent-Child Stories
- Funny Stories
- Camping & Outdoor Adventures
- Cycling Stories
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Gymnastics Stories
- Loss & Grief
- Big Feelings
- New Experiences
- Authors
- Cliff Burke, Michael Crouch, Clarion Books
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- February 7, 2023
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Parent-Child Stories